Last night at Council we had committee meetings for all 4 of our committees followed by a council meeting. Some discussion that occurred in committee level did not reach the council meeting last night and is still under discussion.
- Public Improvements Committee–there was a proposal to reduce the board of control spending limit (i.e. the administration’s limit) from $15,000 to $9,000. The reason was several items that council was unaware of and that if we had approved the spending we would have shed some light on what occurred prior to spending money on it. The impact would be council having over 100 additional pieces of legislation each year and the slow down of the administration for the completion of some day to day tasks awaiting for a council meeting for approval. It was agreed that maybe the dollar amount isn’t the defining factor in council involvement and that maybe some additional factor could be looked at. Mr. Lowdermilk is going to sit down with the administration and see how this could best be addressed.
- In Roads & Safety I proposed we extend the code banning parking on the fire hydrant side of the street to private streets, right now it applies to just public streets. This is favorable to the Fire Chief and Police Chief as the maintenance of the fire hydrants and fire response is the same for the fire department regardless of who owns the street. There was some discussion about cul-de-sac’s and language that could be added to clarify how they are handled. I am working to update my proposal to address cul-de-sac’s and then this will move onto council.
- Council did have a vote to override the veto the Mayor signed on the SKiP Park Committee updated by Council on 9/12/2019. This legislation increased the overall committee from 15 to 18 members but also added language that no more than 2 members of any of the current boards and commissions could also sit on this committee. This language is in line with how the board and commissions in our city operate–typically a member can only sit on one committee unless there is language regarding appointments from other boards. While there are several members of the current volunteer committee that is not happy about this language, the purpose is to have diversity of membership of the new committee from current boards and commissions and allow for involvement of other individuals from the city who are NOT currently on a board. I look forward to the appointments from the Mayor and Council at the next meeting to get this project moving forward.
- There are several upcoming retirements in the city that is requiring hiring to replace such individuals:
- Manager of IT
- Purchasing Dept Support Staff
- Street Department Roads Specialist
- Mr. Jones from the Engineering department also noted that they are wrapping up their stormwater projects for 2019 and that over 2018 and 2019 they have spent $2.2 million on updated projects using the new money raised from the increased stormwater fees.
- The last item on our agenda was the discussion of a proposed car storage lot on Route 59 located in the Limited Industrial zoning district. There was also much debate on the Roberts Rules of Procedure. Typically any legislation before council has to be read 3 times before it can be voted upon. Council does have the ability to take a vote to suspend the rules and pass the legislation immediately, if majority is in favor of the immediate vote. This item did NOT have a majority vote to suspend the rules so last night was the first reading of this legislation. There were two issues at hand that caused members to not suspend the rules: 1. There was initially the addition of a variance that did not go through planning commission and 2. Council needs clarification as to whether this type of development is acceptable based on the zoning code for the district it is in. The second item above is my major concern as I do not feel the Limited Industrial District is appropriate for a 100% outside storage facility. My reasoning is the reading of Chapter 1147 of our zoning code and its stance on outdoor storage–the code seems to point to that the storage should be limited and go along with a principal use of the property–here the only principal use is storage. Additional, in January there was discussion regarding an outdoor self storage lot for boats and RV’s in an I-2 industrial district that council voted down because it did not meet the standard regarding outdoor storage. I-2 is the least restrictive zoning district we have and we voted down outdoor storage there so this is at least worth taking the time to properly research before we move forward on this vote. We also have to take into consideration that while this is zoned I-1, at this time there is currently a residence on this lot and the two lots to the immediate west of this lot. This is still just a conditional use in this district so it would also have to meet the conditional use regulations to be allowable. I believe the code needs to be looked at in its entirety to determine if this is a conditionally permitted use and I will be reaching out to the law department to help make a determination on this. Bottom line is that I want to make sure we are applying the code correctly so we aren’t setting a dangerous precedent or end up in litigation in the future over this.
Next Council Meeting is October 10, 2019 at 7 PM.